Samsung Focus Flash (AT&T) Windows Phone 7.5 smartphone
Fast performance, beautiful screen, nice build quality, inexpensive
Lousy camera, equally poor video recording quality
The Samsung Focus Flash is the smaller of the two new Windows Phone 7.5 smartphones that Samsung has produced for AT&T. Featuring a 3.7-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display, the Focus Flash is a compact little phone that, combined with Windows Phone 7.5, offers a surprisingly nice experience for its price point.
AT&T will offer the Samsung Focus Flash for $49.99 starting on November 6. You can see a video of the phone in action after the tablet of contents, below.
The hardware on the Focus Flash is Samsung through and through, though it does differ a bit aesthetically from last year's Focus and the new Focus S. The Focus Flash has a square face and gently rounded back that lets it sit nicely in your hand. Though it is not the thinnest phone on the market, at 10.9mm, it is not egregiously thick either and its light, 116g weight makes you forget the Focus Flash is in your pocket. The back of the phone features a metal plate set into a plastic housing. Upon first glance, you might think that the metal plate is the battery door, but in fact, the entire back of the phone pries off to reveal the 1,500mAh battery and SIM card slot. The metal plate has a lightly brushed finish, and while it is better than glossy plastic at resisting grease and general yuckiness, it still shows more fingerprints than I would prefer.
The 3.7-inch, Super AMOLED display features the Windows Phone 7.5 standard WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution. Though it is not a Super AMOLED Plus unit, as found on the Focus S and the Galaxy S II Android smartphones from Samsung, it is still great to look at, and really lets Windows Phone's Metro interface shine with deep, inky black and bright colors. I would say that it seems that Windows Phone was designed specifically with AMOLED displays in mind, as it always looks great on them. Below the display are the three standard Windows Phone buttons for back, home, and search, and while the back and search keys are capacitive, the home key is a physical button. Along the right edge of the phone you will find the Windows Phone standard two-stage camera shutter key and power/sleep/unlock key. The left side houses a volume rocker, while the top is home to the 3.5mm headphone jack and the bottom has the micro-USB charging and syncing port.